OhioHealth Cancer & Surgical Specialists

Treatments and Procedures

Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

The evolution of minimally invasive procedures with robotic surgery in surgical oncology and general surgery has enabled our expert surgeons to perform complex surgeries through a minimally invasive approach using the da Vinci® Surgical System robot.

Using minimally invasive procedures, our patients are experiencing the following benefits:

Shorter hospital stays

Excellent clinical outcomes for cancer control

Quicker return to normal diet

Faster recovery and return to work

Less blood loss

Reduced post-operative pain

Our focus for robotic surgery includes:

Cancer surgery for esophagus, stomach, pancreas, colon and rectum

Complex hernias, hiatal/paraesophogeal hernias

Gastro-esophageal reflux, achalasia

Gastro-intestinal diseases involving: the stomach, small bowel and gallbladder

Solid organs, including liver, spleen and adrenal

Our practice is dedicated to minimally invasive surgery because it is often the best clinical option for patients. In addition, it provides significant positive benefits to patients and their families.

The Whipple Procedure

The Whipple procedure is a surgical procedure that involves the removal of the gallbladder, common bile duct, a portion of the duodenum and the head of the pancreas.

This complex and extensive procedure is regularly performed by our surgeons, offering patients the expertise and positive outcomes that come with high-volume surgical experience.

We use the Whipple procedure for aggressively treating pancreatic cancers and pre-cancerous lesions such as intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN). IPMN typically transitions into cancer 80 to 85 percent of the time but if treated in advance with the Whipple procedure can have curability close to 100 percent, before becoming malignant.

OhioHealth Cancer and Surgical Specialists offers hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), also referred to as Hot Chemo Bath, to the abdominal cavity as a cancer treatment option.

We are one of 40 centers in the United States offering this innovative treatment.

Most chemotherapy is done intravenously; however this procedure, to treat cancer in the abdomen, puts heated chemotherapy directly into the abdominal cavity, after the surgeon has removed the cancer. The chemotherapy is heated to 103 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).

HIPEC “washes” the cavity with heated chemotherapy to help kill tumor cells.

The procedure improves drug absorption and effect with minimal exposure to the rest of the body.

Patient benefits include the following:

HIPEC is a single chemotherapy treatment done in the operating room versus typical intravenous chemotherapy that requires multiple treatments.

90 percent of the chemotherapy drug stays within the abdominal cavity, making it less toxic for the patient.